Autistic students excelling at Spanish Fort High (with video)

Spanish Fort High School student Josh Nicols, who is autistic, serves a volleyball in P.E. class Friday. The school is making strides in helping autistic students from across the county excel in the classroom, through technology and assistance from the student body. (Press-Register/Bill Starling)

SPANISH FORT, Alabama -- With music blaring and a crowd around him, Josh Nicols swung hard and pounded the volleyball, zipping it over the net.

Josh smiled proudly, and the game went on.

What would seem like an ordinary P.E. activity wasn’t for Josh.

The 17-year-old is one of eight profoundly autistic students at Spanish Fort High School who interacts daily with typical students through a unique program called Project Reach.

The autistic teens are learning job skills, including how to wash clothes, sort silverware, organize books and stock grocery shelves. They go on field trips to deliver mail at the school system’s central office, to fold pizza boxes at Mellow Mushroom or to dust and vacuum at the Holiday Inn Express.

They’re wielding technology, especially the iPad, to communicate in ways they’ve never been able to before.

They’re having normal high school experiences.

One former participant even scored a touchdown during Spanish Fort’s state-champion football season in 2010.

Project Reach — which expanded from elementary grades about 20 years ago — has encountered its share of challenges. Students sometimes have outbursts, and the classroom doors are locked to help teachers maintain control.

The autistic students get individualized instruction throughout the day from two special-education teachers and five teaching assistants. Regular students, meanwhile, join in through Project Outreach, which, with 112 members, is the largest club at the school.

Autistic students at Spanish Fort High interact with typical students through Project Reach SPANISH FORT, Alabama -- Eight profoundly autistic students at Spanish Fort High School interacts daily with typical students through a unique program called Project Reach. The autistic students get individualized instruction throughout the day from two special-education teachers and five teaching assistants. Regular students, meanwhile, join in through Project Outreach, which, with 112 members, is the largest club at the school.

Serving students throughout Baldwin County, Project Reach starts in preschool in Loxley and extends to Robertsdale Elementary and then to Spanish Fort Middle.

Students qualify for the high school program based on their level of need. Eventually, they can earn a certificate of attendance and walk across the stage during graduation.

Spanish Fort High has been able to raise and use funds, including federal stimulus money, to support the program.

There’s been a culture shift at the school, according to many accounts, as teenagers who otherwise might be tempted to poke fun at students with disabilities instead enjoy spending time with them.

“Our students are very accepting,” said special-education teacher Kristen Box. “Our autistic students are very popular.”

Autism, a bio-neurological developmental disorder, typically causes difficulties in communication, activities and social interactions, according to the National Autism Association. It is diagnosed in one out of every 150 people.

To hear special-ed teacher Scott Parks describe it, the pairing of regular and autistic students makes for a perfect match: the regular students — who spend much of their lives socializing and talking — work with those who struggle doing those things.

Sometimes, when he can’t get an autistic student to do something, he’ll round up a student volunteer to help.

That’s what happened Friday, when Parks wanted 17-year-old Dusty Salac, who is autistic, to look at his iPad screen to try to identify several people whom he knows.

Senior Shelby York came in to encourage him.

“Dusty, where is Mr. Scott?” Parks asked.

Dusty touched the wrong picture the first time, then got it right on the second try.

After a second lesson on identifying colors, Dusty got to pick a reward.

He selected an icon on the iPad dubbed “S-I,” representing the school’s sensory integration room, a place of painted walls, bean bag chairs, bubble tubes and mirrors, where students can relax.

The iPad gives Dusty the means to express himself, Parks said.

Happy that he was able to tell his teacher what he wanted to do, Dusty excitedly jumped and waved his arms when he walked into the sensory integration room, collapsing in front of the bubble tubes so he could push buttons to make the water inside change colors.

Parks marveled at the sight, and at the larger implications. Reach and Outreach, he said, hold the potential to change “a generation’s view” about the disabled.